Witnesses Detail Tense Scenes At Bank, Home As Cheshire Trial Opens

Desperate to prove who she was in an effort to get the money she needed to save her family — but not sure if bank officials believed her story — Jennifer Hawke-Petit calmly told tellers thather captors had taken her driver's license and credit cards.

"She showed me pictures of her daughters in her wallet," Lyons testified in Superior Court Monday.

"We looked at each other. I knew right then that she was telling the truth and I had to help her," Lyons said through tears. The moment prompted Dr. William Petit Jr., the lone survivor of the deadly home invasion, to lean over, drop his head and look to the floor.

The testimony came during a busy and emotional first day in the trial of Steven Hayes, one of two men charged with killing Hawke-Petit, 48, and her two daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, during a July 2007 attack inside the family's Cheshire home.

Today, Petit is expected to take the stand and talk publicly for the first time about what he remembers about the day. He, too, was attacked but escaped and tried to get help.

During the bank encounter, as a teller handed over three stacks of $50 bills totaling $15,000 to Hawke-Petit, Lyons, with the lights off in her office, called police. Lyons testified that she told police that a woman was in the bank saying thather husband and children were being held hostage and tied up in their home and that if she gave them money, her family would not be killed.

"It was amazing how calm she was, but then again maybe she was petrified," Lyons told police, according to a dramatic 911 call played for jurors.

"She seemed quite calm. She seemed to me to be very brave," Lyons said.

Hawke-Petit even gave the bank employees details about her captors, whom she described as "being polite." Lyons said. She said the men were "keeping their faces covered."

Lyons' testimony put Hawke-Petit inside the bank on the morning that police said she was strangled inside her home. Hayes faces capital felony and multiple murder, kidnapping, rape and arson charges. Hawke-Petit's daughters were tied to their beds and the home was set on fire. Hayley and Michaela died of smoke inhalation.

Thomas J. Ullmann, one of Hayes' defense attorneys, did not shy away from the details of the crime in his opening statements Monday, saying Hayes will "concede much, but not all" of what happened on July 23, 2007.

In shocking opening remarks, Ullmann said Hayes raped and killed Hawke-Petit in a crime that began as a robbery but "got out of control" and resulted in homicide.

"I hope I don't sound callous or indifferent in describing what happened," said Ullmann, who is fighting to keep Hayes from getting the death penalty. "But these are the chilling facts of the case."

Hayes, whose criminal record dates back to when he was a teenager in the 1980s, was on parole at the time of the break-in. The trial of Joshua Komisarjevsky, a second man charged in the crimes, will begin when Hayes' case is finished.

Petit and his family — including Hawke-Petit's parents and sister — sat in a front row of the packed courtroom that at one point was standing-room-only. More than a dozen people who came to listen to testimony in the sensational case were denied access to the courtroom.

It was a busy first day of testimony, which began with three jurors being excused for various reasons. In addition to Lyons and another bank teller, witnesses included an officer at the scene, a neighbor who found a badly injured Petit at his home and a nurse who worked in Petit's office. The nurse testified that she had taken a phone call from Hawke-Petit that morning, saying Petit was sick and that his morning appointments should be canceled.

After testimony in the trial concluded for the day, more than a dozen members of the Petit and Hawke families gathered outside the courthouse to address reporters.

Petit's sister, Johanna Petit Chapman, stood in front. "After waiting more than three years, the Petit and Hawke families are ready for this process to finally begin, and our hope in the end is that justice will prevail," she said, visibly shaken. "The pain will never end when we think of Jennifer, Hayley, and Michaela every second of every day."

Although they wanted to comment further on the legal process, Chapman said, they would instead let the legal system speak for itself, "as anything else we say will be scrutinized and criticized by the defense."

Alongside her were her mother, Barbara Petit, who had her hand on Johanna's back, and Hawke-Petit's father, the Rev. Richard Hawke. William Petit Jr. was behind her but did not speak.

Inside the courtroom, William Petit sat just a few feet from Hayes, who was wearing tan pants and a long-sleeved brownish-tan shirt with black and white stripes.